Strider
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Posts posted by Strider
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Personally I didn't enjoy my teenage years.
Was it me?!
But no, growing up sucks. Back at school/uni I just couldn't wait to leave. I thought that joining the "real world" and not being tied to an academic calendar would be a great feeling - no exams woohoo! Unfortunately I never really considered that work would feel like more of a bind than exams. In fact that's probably what's most different than i expected, I never anticipated work to be this dull.
Saying that, I do get up to a lot more fun stuff outside of work these days than i did when i had all that free time when i was younger. That's not to say I didn't enjoy my teens, I was lucky enough to realise how much i enjoyed the free time/lifestyle at sixth form, so I look back at that with fond (if not slightly rose tinted) memories.
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Has anyone being paying any attention to WildStar? - A new mmorpg created by a lot of ex-blizzard guys apparently. There's a lot of beta keys floating around for this weekends closed beta, might be worth a punt?
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Time to discuss all of those ups and downs of the 50 year sentence we call a career.I've just been accepted for an interview. Good news, although it's in Leeds on a wednesday (means travelling up tuesday night, coming back weds night). Not sure how I can get the time off, we're pretty busy at work. Might have to pull a sickie. Also, it's in Leeds, so that's a lot of travelling.
Why am I putting it off? Well it's a fixed term contract until the end of 2014. I really want to move but it seems like it might be a bit silly to leave a fairly well paid job, to have no guarantee of future employment after 8 months.
Thoughts?
Bloody well go for it! If you aren't happy where you are then move on the greener pastures. Green pastures = Happier and better life
And you're in the north. You could take a drop in wages and wouldn't even notice. Saying that, I hate my job. The work isn't bad at all, it's just not enough. I'm bored, I'm not challenged enough and the wage is utter rubbish for the hours I work. So yup, I'm packing my bags and leaving (along with 80% of the department)!
The good news is that I've recently secured a few interviews for the NHS Scientist Training Programme (Cardiology and Audiology), which is definitely more my kind of thing! So fingers crossed I can pull it out of the bag!
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I graduated with a Biology degree in July with the aim of walking into a ecology/conservation/ecological consultancy job. Unfortunately I've found that most of these jobs (and most in the biology sector for that matter) require 2-3 years experience, which I just don't have. I've also found that a lot of the bog standard "work your way up" jobs are offered as apprenticeships for £100/week, which I would quite happily take, but I couldn't survive on £100/week for 2 years.
This led me to my current job... [moan] After finishing Uni I started applying for any graduate schemes going and managed to get onto an online marketing/SEO grad scheme for a well known (and highly hated) sports retailer. I say it was a grad scheme, a 5 year old could have put together a better "scheme" than they have. After 4 months of being there I'm on less than 15k a year (which is way less than any grad scheme out there), in a boring, monotonous job that could easily be done by anybody with a basic understanding of english. I feel completely useless. Which is why I can't wait to leave and find a job that's actually challenging and engaging. Unfortunately that job requires 2-3 years experience that I have no idea where to get it from. It's a tough circle.
... I feel your pain.
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As a present from me to me (or me to my car), I have bought a car polisher kit thing!. Admittedly quite expensive for a clean car, but meh. I mainly bought it for my girlfriends car because the paint feels like gravel and my car looks pretty clean anyway. I did try it on mine however and I was pretty amazed at how well it got it shining!
Also got some golf tees. Not them most exciting purchase but I've not played golf for ages and the plan is to have a crack at the pitch and putt with my dad.
Also, also after not playing my PS3 for yonks I've caved and got the last of us. I couldn't ignore all the "best game ever" posts i kept seeing on my facebook wall.
Finally I have started my lego mini figure collection starting with:
If anyone else buys these please say im not the only one that stands in tesco for about 5 minutes trying to guess which ones inside.
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I've had a pretty good last month really! Got a first from uni, found out my dissertation is going to get published, got the first job I applied for, got a decent crop of potatoes, had a BBQ yesterday and didn't get sunburnt and better yet the sun is still shining.... Something's got to go wrong soon.
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All the technology I own is being weird today. Phone keeps freezing and then closing apps after a while, 360 kept pausing gameplay for about 5 seconds every few minutes or so before going back to normal and my laptop seems to be enjoying a lot of random freezing today as well. Not bad, just annoying. Has to all go at once, eh?My girlfriends phone freezes and becomes unresponsive every time she sits on the right hand seat of our sofa, any other time its fine. Technology is weird.
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Its such a good show its easy to start by watching a single episode and end up finishing with a marathon!I foolishly starting watching the first season during my exams last year, it took up a good chunk of my revision time that's for sure.
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It does seem to be that the stereotypes are very true down here.Although I'm not sure if it's a north/south thing or a class thing. Either way, I do miss the culture back home.
Oh right, I didn't actually think it'd differ that much. What stereotypes are these then?
To be honest, one of the reasons I didn't like my first uni was that I felt a bit 'out-classed'. It wasn't my reason for switching uni, but it did make me feel a little uncomfortable.
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I've been feeling a bit down for a while. It happens fairly frequently. It's not as if I have anything to be down about. I've recently started a well paid job, moved to a new area, made lots of great, new friends. I should be happy. I do wonder if I'll ever be truly happy. As if, no matter how good my life is, my brain won't accept prolonged periods of happiness.You must be missing northern culture, they're the classic symptoms.
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Are you using it for gaming? If not, I'd suggest a new mobo and CPU.Something like this:
AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz Socket AM3+ 16MB ~£131
Then an AM3+ mobo for around £60.
That'll leave you with £20-70 to play around with. Either put it towards a new graphics card, or get an SSD and some new RAM. Although if you're gaming, you will obviously bottleneck without a better GPU.
Personally I'm gonna hold off on getting an SSD until they come down in price. I reckon 500GB for around £80 will be here in about 2 years.
I was going to ask you directly on Facebook as you seem the main go to guy for tech lately:P
I don't game much, although I like the idea of being able to. On the current setup I managed to play skyrim ok, so it's not drastically bad, and down the line ill probably get a PS4/720 to suite my gaming needs anyway.
I thought the motherboard/CPU was ok :/ shows what I know. My main reason for going with a Ssd was mainly for the OS and the odd program like photoshop. But I suppose it makes sense to upgrade the motherboard as it would allow better upgrades in the future.
Cheers
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I'm thinking about upgrading my desktop as it's now 3/4 year old, however I have no clue where to start first (or any knowledge of what's good/will fit). Basically I have about £200-£250 to upgrade with and I'm after the best 'bang for my buck' in terms of better performance.
My spec at the mo:
Motherboard: GA-MA78LMT-US2H (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3375#ov)
Ram: 4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 12800c9 (2x2GB i believe)
Graphics: Radeon 4800 HD 512mb
CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 635
Hard Drive: 500GB
My first thoughts were to upgrade the ram and install a SSD. I'd have thought they'd give the most notable performance boosts?
Any help would be muchly appreciated
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How long do you even spend in the Natwest app anyway, it's not exactly brim full of features...Admittedly not very long, but I do use it daily. I'm just concerned that I'd resent the lack of 'polish' of some of the android apps compared to ipad (spotify is another app I use). It might seem a touch petty to some people, but I'm picky like that and it would probably end up annoying me :P
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I'm considering upgrading from an Ipad 2 to a Nexus 10, my only concern is the availability of tablet specific apps on android compared to IOS. How do they compare these days, has android caught up at all? The main apps I use are Facebook, Chrome, Gmail and banking (Natwest/TSB). I know all of these are on Google Play as my phone is an android, however how do they appear on a 10 inch tablet? Do they look hideously stretched/scaled, like when you view an app made for Iphone on an Ipad?
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I rarely hear women chatting in the loo...The queues aren't because of chatting (cause like at St. Pancras, no one chats there but the queue is always huge), it is just because it takes a lot more time to get our business done. We can't just whip it out like men, it takes a bit longer. =P
My girlfriend gave this reason as well. She also said that women tend to wash their hands properly whilst men don't. To be fair to you females, I do occasionally skimp a little on the old hand washing.
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Apparently you should be able to see it somewhere around The Plough at around 9.00pm tonight... though they said maybe use a telescope/binoculars.I'm sure when I first heard about this asteroid a few weeks back they said we would be able to see it during the day/almost like a second sun!
(unless I'm getting that confused with something else happening this year)There's a comet around November time that's supposedly brighter than the moon. You're not thinking of that are you?
Nabbed this from a facebook page:
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I'm with view The Peeps and Flink on this. I like to know what goes into my food before I eat it.
If I had eaten horse I can't say I'd cry about it. I usually go out of my way to try interesting meats anyway, I just like to know what they are before I stick it down my throat.
As for buying it, I wouldn't go as far as saying I'm a meat connoisseur, but I do tend to buy the better stuff from my local butchers rather than a supermarket. So chances are I've not actually eaten it anyway.
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It depends on what style of music you want to play, as those two guitars are quite different. The C40 is mainly for classical and folk music (it has nylon strings), whilst the F370 is more for your 'normal' everyday acoustic sound, so rock and country and stuff (steel strings). So if it was me I'd go with F370 as that suits my music taste the best. Don't get me wrong I still play some classical stuff, it just doesn't sound as 'classically'.
Yamaha make some pretty good low priced, beginner instruments so you should be fine there.
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Regarding the pain in my leg a while ago and the vertigo i got a few days ago. I'm fairly convinced this is a blood clot but nobody seems to believe me. A few days after the pain in my leg dissapeared I woke up one morning and found that i couldn't breath very well, around 5 oclock the clot moved and i could breath fine. A few days later i have a palpitation that lasted about 10 or 15 miutes as it worked its way through my heart and I have a 24 hour headache all day saturday.I'm convinced the vertigo was part of an ischemic stroke, Now i'm sitting here scared to sleep or eat thinking i'm gonna die of a sudden stroke or something. Will probably go back to the GP tomorrow and say something but hes probably just going to say its nothing.
If you're that concerned I'd recommend going to A&E. A few years ago a friend I knew when I was younger had pains in his legs and he went to his GP about it. They told him it was nothing so he thought nothing more of it. However a few days later he was found dead in his uni room. That was a clot I believe.
I'm not purposely trying to worry you, but it's definetly worth checking out, even if it turns out to be nothing.
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Watched this yesterday. A very good film, definetly worth a watch, but it could have been better. As mentioned by others, some scenes just stick out as unnecessary, they feel like the extended edition scenes just stuck in. They try to be funny, but they don't pull that off very well and it ends up distracting from the main story. That's my main criticism about the film, in my opinion editing those scenes out probably would have given a better, more serious story (yes the book is more lighthearted than lotr, but even without those scenes it'd still do the job).
I found it a little bit ropey/nothing really happened up until Rivendell, then it picked up again. I agree with Guy
the gollum bit was great. They nailed that.
Also a question for those who have read the book (and can remember it):
The albino Orc... Is he in the book? I can't remember him at all.
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Also final criticism:
Radagast. I really wanted to like the character, but i feel his scenes didn't benefit the film at all. The sleigh chase was cringey and looked quite crap.
Other than that a very good film. Definitely a worthy prequel (unlike Star Wars). Tempted to go see it again.
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What is it about Hull that is so depressing? I've never been' date=' but everyone who goes there comes back with Tales From Beyond The Grave, or something.[/quote']It is exaggerated to some degree, but it's just got a feeling about it that I don't like. As a city I like Sheffield, it's got more going for it than hull, an atmosphere. Hull on the other hand just feels poor, dim and lifeless. As horrible as it might sound you can see it in the people that live there. Now im not rich by any means what with coming from a deprived ex-mining village, but even in Hull there's a difference. Other than The Deep aquarium and passing through to catch a ferry, there isn't anything to go to for. Even the shops are no better than the ones in my local town at home.
It also feels very isolated. You do get the impression that it is tucked away in a forgotten corner. The m62 motorway leading towards Hull is always near enough empty in both directions. I'm not going to complain about that because it helps my commute to uni, but it just shows how unimportant the city is.
York on the other hand is a very nice city. I forgot about that one when I was slagging them off. I like the oldness. Lincoln is nice aswell.
Btw 6 mins to Worksop 20 mins to Sheffield, you don't live in Dinnington/Anston do you?
Close, but the wrong side of worksop, our area is the void between Mansfield and a worksop.
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Countryside no doubt about it. Cities frustrate me. I've been to London twice in my life and although its okay for a few hours/a day it's nice to be home. Also (this may go against everyone else's opinion) I struggle to find things to do in the city. Where do you go for a walk to chill out?
Ever since going to university ive developed quite a fondness for where I live (it's not hard when you live in Hull for 2 years - it must be the most depressing city imaginable). The village I live in is a bit of a shit hole, but the surrounding area is great. In someways this is linked to my degree (biology) as its given me a better understanding of how things 'function' so to speak. I've also gained quite an interest in wildlife such as birds and plants so it gives me something to look out for. Ive noticed for the past couple of years I've been paying more attention to the agricultural calendar. The drive to my girlfriends house is all countryside (in fact I pass moogles house along the way, but who Is never outside to wave to) and I always look in the fields at what stage the farmers are at. So yeah, I'd say I'm definitely more county.
The village I'm from used to be a (relatively large) properous mining town back in the day so it has quite a lot of history. In fact the whole area is packed full of interesting heritage. As moogle said there's so many old estates, stately homes, scientific sites of interest and country parks it's great.
For me nothing beats going outside at night and hearing the calls of a tawny owl.
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Congrats Mokong!
Got a free voucher today for afternoon tea for 2 at a local stately home/hall/hotel/spa thing. I went expecting it to be a bit awkward and full of old people, but it turned out to be really good. Unlimited tea, scones, sandwiches, strawberries and cakes is never a bad thing, especially for free and waited upon. The staff were good to talk to as well. Good stuff in all.
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For my auntie and girlfriend.
For my brother. Recently discovered a new Lego shop in Meadowhall at Sheffield. The first Lego shop I've ever been in, such a great place. He's also got the game of thrones season 1 blu ray set.
Is growing up as you expected it to be?
in General Chit Chat
Posted
Oh wow, i didn't even spot the "i love you" until quoting this message. I'm rusty! Have i been away that long?! But yeah, I lurk, stick my nose in every now and again.
As a teacher (i hope i've got that right), what's the biggest difference/change that you've see between growing up now and say 10/15 years ago (or whenever you grew up)?